Donald Keyhoe: To Tell The Truth

IN 1956, Donald E. Keyhoe co-founded the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). He was one of several prominent professional, military or scientific figures on the board of directors, which lent the group a degree of legitimacy many of the other contemporary “flying saucer clubs” sorely lacked. With Keyhoe in the lead, NICAP pressed hard for Congressional hearings and investigation into UFOs. They scored some attention from the mass media, and the general public (NICAP’s membership peaked at about 15,000 during the early and mid-1960s) but only very limited interest from government officials.

Following a widely publicized wave of UFO reports in early 1966, the popular CBS panel show, To Tell The Truth featured UFO Investigator Major Donald Keyhoe as a guest on April 11th, 1966. Hosted by Bud Collyer, a panel of four celebrities—Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, and Kitty Carlisle—question three people all claiming to be UFO Investigator Donald Keyhoe and must determine who is telling the truth.

As he states in his sworn affidavit:

I, Donald Keyhoe, am a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, a retired Marine Corps pilot and have been an aviation writer for many years. Currently I am working in Washington DC as director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. NICAP is a scientific organization which was especially created 10 years ago to investigate the facts surrounding unidentified flying object known as ufos or flying saucers. Recently there’s been another rash of reports of strange things in the sky. in the past 20 years there have been over 10,000 such sightings of UFOs. While many of these flying objects have been satisfactorily explained as a result of natural phenomena, others so far defy logical explanation. It is the position of NICAP that there is nothing to be gained by secrecy and that a thorough and intensive scientific investigation of unidentified flying objects would give the subject the dignity and importance it deserves and quite possibly reveal some startling facts.

signed Major Donald Keyhoe.

Three men all claiming to be Major Donald Keyhoe on TO TELL THE TRUTH from April 11, 1966.

Click on either image to enjoy the show. Unfortunately for the imposters, Keyhoe knows his facts cold.

As a bonus: See if you can spot Tony Goodstone, author of the seminal The Pulps as he and two imposters try to fool the panel!

And be sure to check out the latest volume of Donald E. Keyhoe’s Philip Strange—Captain Philip Strange: Strange Hell—The German Empire has unleased Hell on Earth! The dead are climbing out of their graves and giant skeletons attack the living. Heads are detonating and soldiers are turning to bronze. But flying to the rescue like an avenging angel is America’s own “Brain Devil,” Captain Philip Strange, the phantom ace of G-2 Intelligence. Whether it’s deadly bridges or killer broadcasts, when the Allies need a miracle they pray for Philip Strange! When World War I gets weird, only America’s own “Phantom Ace of G-2” has a ghost of a chance against the supernatural slaughter. Captain Philip Strange in his strangest cases yet from the pages of Flying Aces magazine!